TV writing dominated by white males, but minorities, women gain

Minority and women writers have made modest job gains in the television industry but have a long way to go before the playing field is level.

So concludes the latest analysis from the Writers Guild of America, West, which reviewed employment patterns for 1,722 writers working on 190 broadcast and cable television shows during the 2011-2012 season.

The study focuses on three groups that have traditionally been underemployed in the TV industry: women, minority and older writers.

Minority writers nearly doubled their share of staffing positions in the last decade. Between the 1999-2000 and 2011-2012 TV seasons, minority writers’ share of TV employment increased from 7.5% to 15.6%, with much of the gains occurring among Asian and Latino writers. The report attributes part of the shift to the growth in multicultural dramas. (Los Angeles Times)